Sunday, April 18, 2010

Martin Hayes: Clare Reel and The Night Poor Larry Was Stretched

I've started moving my columns for Folkworks to here as it has been difficult for people to find the columns and Folkworks also doesn't make the sheet music downloadable. That, however, is the main reason why people contact me!

So here was the first one, originally from 2009, but published in Folkworks in May 2010.

Many people like the idea of playing
in a session and have decent skills and know some tunes, but do not quite have
the repertoire or skills to hang in with a typical pub session (i.e. reels at
blistering speed). Our session is aimed at the more common intermediate player,
but I also want to keep it interesting enough for stronger players. Learning new
material is important and I have a strong preference myself for learning tunes
that are likely to be played in sessions elsewhere.

Here is a pair of tunes that fit the description, one a
lovely slip jig with the grim title The
Night (Before) Poor Larry Was Stretched, the other the Clare Reel. While neither one was entirely obscure, they have
become much more popular recently. The reason is undoubtedly that Martin Hayes
and Dennis Cahill recorded them on their last CD Welcome Here Again. Martin Hayes is a very popular and influential
fiddler and this was their first recording in almost 10 years (the last one was
a 1999 live CD), so it got a lot of attention. In a departure from typical
Irish recordings, Martin and Dennis did not put tunes into sets, but recorded
them standing alone. The Clare Reel
is track 1 The Night Poor Larry Was
Stretched track 5. Poor Larry also
exists as a ballad with several different lyrics and changes in the melody, but
it takes a minimum of 8 verses before he is dead, regardless of the version.

Martin Hayes epitomizes the fiddle music of County Clare for many
people, but he certainly has his own idiosyncratic and very recognizable style.
Personal styles dominate regional styles, although there are some recognizable
regional characteristics. The Clare style could be characterized by a slower
pace and a more wistful or even eerie feel. A contributing
factor may be the use of flat keys, F, Gm, Bb, or even Eb. You will get that idea immediately if you listen to the short version of
the Clare Reel (also the first track on their CD) available on Martin’s website
at http://www.martinhayes.com/the_clare_reel.mp3

I just found a great video of one of the key players of the
Clare Style, Paddy Canny, who then was well into his 80s in the video. Paddy
Canny could be considered the musical grandfather of Martin Hayes because he
taught Martin’s father, PJ Hayes, in the 1930s.

Paddy Canny plays two standard jigs, but note his fingering:
Cliffs of Moher is played in sessions
everywhere, but in the key of Am, whereas Paddy Canny plays it in Gm.

Now, if Paddy Canny plays in Gm, there is a good reason to
learn some Irish tunes in Gm, which happens to be the key for The Night Poor Larry Was Stretched. I
took a video of a great set of Martin and Dennis last year, and Poor Larry starts at 1.12

I learned both of those tunes from Martin shortly after he
had recorded them (he also helped me glue my upright bass back together, but
that is another story) and

I transcribed both tunes in the attached pdf to get you
started. But remember that you can never really learn a tune from sheet music
alone. It gives you the notes, but that is only part of playing music and often
the easier one. Sheet music is very helpful while learning a tune, but you need
to get away from the printed material quickly and get the feel from a
recording, video, or experienced teacher. I wrote out chords as well, but the
chords here are more standard than what Dennis would play, and written so they
are easy when capoed at 3rd fret (again, the idea is that you can use that for
a session): Clare Reel becomes then: D-Em-D-G-D-Em-D for the A part and
Bm-G-F-Em-D in the B part Poor Larry
becomes: Em-D-Em-D and G-D-G-C-D.
However, that does not sound at all like Dennis Cahill. To sound more like him,
try an Fsus throughout the A part of the Clare
Reel and play the top 4 strings (finger them as F/Bb/C/F). Or for Poor Larry B-part, keep an F in the bass
and chords change each bar: Bb/F - Eb/F - Bb/F - Eb/F. But when there are
several chord instruments at a session, you need to agree on chords in advance
or only one of you can play at a time.